Round-table discussion with Mia Fuller (Berkeley): Researching Colonial Architecture in North and East Africa. Questions, Aims and Methods across the Disciplines.
Thursday 12 January 2023 from 10 am to 12 pm, Koserstraße 20, Room A 184
After its "rediscovery" in the 1990s, Asmara, the capital of the former Italian colony Eritrea was considered above all a grandiose time capsule in which an urban utopia from the 1930s built by Italians could be experienced. Once again, those who use the buildings, the futuristically curved petrol stations and factories, the fashionable bars and cinemas, were blanked out. Mia Fuller's publication Moderns Abroad: Architecture, Cities and Italian Imperialism from 2007 was one of the first studies to critically question this understanding and to examine colonial architecture as a transcultural as well as socio-political phenomenon.
In a round-table discussion, she first introduces us to her book's epistemological interest and approach. We will then talk to her about how disciplines such as art, architectural and planning histories from diverse (regional) perspectives as well as colonial history and postcolonial studies look at the subject matter, where these different approaches complement or rub against each other. Together with you, we would like to discuss which questions and research approaches promote an integral understanding of colonial architecture and its significance today in a transcultural perspective. Students from all disciplines are welcome, no prior knowledge or registration is required.
Organisation: Dr. Christine Beese (Art History Europe / America) and Katharina Jörder (Art History / African Arts). For further information please mail to: c.beese@fu-berlin.de
Dr. Christine Beese Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin Arbeitsbereich Architekturgeschichte Kunsthistorisches Institut Freie Universität Berlin Koserstraße 20 14195 Berlin +49-030-838-59392 c.beese@fu-berlin.de
